Seeing this, Dorothy rushed to David's side and shoved the bundle from her arms in front of him.

"I got what you wanted! How are you doing?"

David lifted his somewhat savage face and glared at the old man. "You're the one losing it. I'm doing great..."

With that, he pulled Dorothy aside. "Take this guy next door and wait for me."

He wasn't doing great.

The evil spirit's malice had nearly driven him insane. Right now he had to perform the advancement ritual immediately. Only by bringing down the Sun Goddess's power would he have a chance to suppress his madness.

The bundle Dorothy brought back contained several items—a scroll recording the second-tier Goddess's Blessing Ritual, a small Sun Goddess statue pendant, and the other two ritual materials.

David didn't even have the mind to carefully examine those materials. After kicking the two of them out, he directly started smearing his blood on the floor following the formation pattern on the scroll.

When he held that small statue in his hand, he felt a trace of warmth. The goddess's divine power was already calling to him.

What David didn't know was that this item had once been a personal belonging of the previous generation's Holy Maiden. Combined with the other two ritual materials, they were the best stock that could be found in the Church.

No helping it—the fees His Highness the Fourth Prince had advanced to Fernandes were just too generous.

The old guy had no choice but to play thief again, raiding the Church's collection of many years in advance, packing everything up early and waiting for David to pick it up.

With astonishing willpower, David finally gritted his teeth and finished drawing the formation.

After placing the huge glowing heart soaking in another jar along with the other ritual materials in the formation, everything was ready. The moment he stepped into the formation, he received a prompt.

[Ritual power detected. Begin second-tier Goddess's Blessing Ritual? Warning: Current ritual success rate 70%.]

"Only 70%?"

David froze, not knowing which step went wrong. Was it because the formation he drew himself was too ugly?

But there was no other way now. He could only grit his teeth and gamble.

"If I die, I die! Start the ritual!"

BOOM—!

A golden light exploded in the room. The small Sun Goddess statue David was gripping directly broke free from his palm and floated in the center of the formation.

This was the second time now. If Fernandes were here, he'd definitely marvel at this kid's luck—why was the goddess so responsive to his every request?

Endless light burst from that statue, like opening a door to the light.

Dorothy and Julius outside the room were both startled into wide-eyed stares by the commotion inside. They watched dazzling light shoot out from under the door's edge. You could imagine the room had become an ocean of light.

Divine power descended from the void. Besides light, not a trace of power leaked outside the ritual.

David bathed in the divine light, joyfully feeling the Malevolent Emissary inside his body being completely suppressed by the divine power.

But it was only suppressed, not destroyed like that Devourer evil spirit had been...

The power of the second-tier Goddess's Blessing Ritual seemed insufficient to completely kill an evil god's apostle!

David let out an unwilling lament in the light. He even saw that detestable evil spirit rapidly consuming the divine power pouring into his body, causing the divine power that should have formed a divine envoy's phantom to be directly devoured by more than half.

"It's over. Is this going to fail..."

David collapsed to the ground in despair. Looked like the goddess's blessing didn't beat the evil god's curse...

Originally, the second-tier Goddess's Blessing Ritual would grant the ritual participant a second supernatural power—a force called "Blessing."

The blessed could choose one body part to permanently receive divine power's blessed infusion.

For example, if the ritual participant chose to bless their eyes, they'd gain powerful vision that could see through darkness; bless their legs, they'd gain movement ability that could trample darkness; bless their heart, they'd gain an ever-living heart of light; bless their hands, they'd gain mighty arms that could annihilate evil...

(I know what you're thinking. History does record some lunatic who chose to bless his lower body, with the consequence of becoming a fallen one for blasphemy.)

But for David right now, this kind of blessing didn't seem to help much with suppressing the evil spirit.

No...

He had to try. What if it helped?

A crazy idea suddenly struck David. Perhaps the power of a second-tier blessing alone couldn't suppress the evil spirit, but what if he combined it with that mysterious Limb Grafting Ritual, mixing the two powers together? What would happen?

For instance, blessing one of his grafted arms...

The lightning-quick thought flashed by. David put it into action almost the instant he thought of it.

He began deliberately guiding the divine power infused by the goddess toward his soul. The blessing power gradually took shape.

A green hand extended from his back—besides the Hand of Divine Corpse, this was the Hand of Monster that had followed him longest, and currently the highest level, most frequently used arm.

The monster claw gripped the blessing power and yanked it tightly into its palm.

Then, something magical happened.

The Sun Goddess's divine power ignited, directly setting the entire Hand of Monster aflame!

David's heart jumped. "Rejection?"

No... that wasn't right.

The arm transmitted no feeling of pain whatsoever. On the contrary, it seemed to be getting purified.

Those golden flames... were burning away the impurities in the Hand of Monster!

The green arm was burned black in the flames. The originally thick and terrifying arm muscles became more condensed and elongated. After the epidermis turned to ash in the flames, it revealed a layer of black skin radiating a metallic luster.

Terrifying power condensed and swelled in the extremely dense muscles, finally bursting out from the five fingertips of the black hand, forming five horrible "blades."

It had transformed into a black claw!

[Second-tier Goddess's Blessing Ritual complete. Acquired second-tier ritual power: Blessing.]

[Ritual power infused. Life energy limit +600.]

[Ritual power infused. Psychic Energy limit +1000.]

[Due to "Blessing" effect, "Hand of Monster" mutated into "Rending Demon Claw."]

[Rending Demon Claw I: Requires 100 psychic energy or life energy to activate. Possesses effect of rending spirit bodies, dark energy, and elemental bodies. Cooldown: none.]

Seeing this series of prompts, David finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The ritual looked like it barely succeeded. The guess about blessing the Hand of Monster was viable. That arm had actively grabbed the remaining large amount of divine power, successfully seizing the divine energy at the critical moment.

As for the little bit of life energy and psychic energy the ritual increased, David felt he could ignore it. This was actually the real numbers a normal hunter would gain when advancing to second-tier anyway.

What mattered wasn't the health and psychic energy, but the second-tier ritual ability—"Blessing."

The "Rending Demon Claw" that had mutated by combining with the goddess's blessing had obviously become even more powerful. Forget about that special effect that could rend spirit bodies—what did having an arm with absolutely no cooldown time mean?

It meant he directly had one more arm.

One Rending Demon Claw that could continuously manifest, wouldn't disappear, and wouldn't overload!

David slowly extended the black demon claw, channeling just a bit of psychic energy. With a light swipe, five scratches immediately appeared on the table ahead. Silently, it shattered into six pieces.

The power from the ritual finally dissipated. The formation and materials on the floor had long since burned away in the light.

But right then, the Malevolent Emissary inside David's body suddenly erupted, as if wanting to vent its anger at being suppressed by the divine power!

David's brow furrowed tightly. He calmly extended the Rending Demon Claw and stabbed its sharp nails into his own chest...

Blood flowed out. The furious Malevolent Emissary immediately became docile.

The Rending Demon Claw possessed the ability to harm spirit bodies. The evil spirit dwelling in his body sensed danger. If David pulled out his own heart, it would die too.

It sensed David's incredibly cold will. Under death's threat, it hesitated, grew timid, and ultimately made concessions.

David stood up, withdrew his claw, and took a deep breath.

Looked like he'd found a way to temporarily suppress the Malevolent Emissary... But this wasn't a long-term solution. If that evil spirit went crazy, death's threat might lose its effect.

"Looks like I'll need a higher-tier ritual to get rid of this thing."

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